


one more day

by TheMostPsychotic (ymirjotunn)



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Moirails, Other, Rome - Freeform, lowbloods die young
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-07
Updated: 2012-08-07
Packaged: 2017-11-11 15:50:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/480198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ymirjotunn/pseuds/TheMostPsychotic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for HSO Bonus Round 5, until I realised the prompter was from my own team. Oops.</p>
<p>Aradia does not want to die. Dave doesn't want her to die either, but he knows it's inevitable. So he does the best he can with the time she has left.</p>
            </blockquote>





	one more day

**Author's Note:**

> I've actually been to Rome! It was very pretty. You should go sometime.

"Yo, Ara, you can't go in there--"

It's too late. Aradia has already slipped down past the barriers. It's dark, and Dave can barely make out her silhouette from where he stands, so he figures he should probably follow her. Just to make sure, you know, she doesn't get into any trouble.

Besides, it might be her last trip. Better to make sure she enjoys herself.

"We're going to get arrested," he says under his breath, catching up with her.

"This is amazing," Aradia says, twisting to face him, eyes bright with reflected moonlight and giddy discovery. "What is it?"

"I ain't an expert, but the sign said it was a forum," says Dave. "Guessing they don't mean the 4chan kind, so...I think it was a place where the Romans hung out."

"Hung out?"

Strictly, coolkids don't know Roman history. History is for kids who stayed awake in school. History, for Christ's sake, is for kids who went to school. Dave is none of the above. But he had an Internet connection in front of him then, and he has a curious lady-troll in front of him now, and so he explains. 

"Imagine this, Ara. Hundreds of rich white Roman males, all just standing around in this forum, buying things, talking to friends, being political. Probably more than hundreds, even. If you were somebody in Rome, you would come hang out at the forums. Have you seen how big this is? And there's another one, too, just over there." He points. The other ruins can't really be seen over the wall that Aradia hopped, but the columns are there, rising into the sky.

"Why is it all broken?" Aradia asks, softly, picking up a piece of fragmented stone from the ground.

"It's old," Dave says. "Old things don't last."

He immediately regrets it. Aradia drops the relic to the ground, won't look at him.

"Hey," he says, quietly. "It may not be in, like, full glory mode or anything, but it's still here, right?"

She doesn't say a word.

"People still come here to celebrate its existence," he says. "People remember it."

"Nobody will remember me," she says, flat-voiced.

Dave remembers the day she told him she was going to die. She took both of his hands in her delicate little ones, and she looked him right in the eye and said, "I am going to turn fifteen sweeps in another Earth year, and then I will die."

He remembers arguing with her - arguing with her? Like words from his mouth could possibly change her fate. It didn't seem fair, though. That someone like her, so full of life, could just blink out of existence.

None of the other trolls had died yet, he argued.

Aradia had smiled at him and told him she was the lowest of the lowbloods, and she had expected this, and he should expect it now too, and that she was sorry but she should go.

He had grabbed her by the wrist just as she was turning and said that he was going to take her somewhere.

She turned to face him again, that little half-smile on her face that Dave knows now means he's sparked her interest, and that's how all this started.

So far they had seen the Mayan ruins and some tribe in Southern Africa and once they left here they were going to go see if they could sneak their way into seeing those stone warrior things from China. Or at least the Great Wall. And there's more stuff on Dave's list, too. They have a whole year, still, or at least they have a little less than a whole year, but it's not like Dave is counting down or anything.

(He still tries to pretend Aradia doesn't mean that much to him.)

(Tries, fails.)

He notices Aradia has red rolling down her cheeks and gathers her in for a hug. "I'm going to remember you," he whispers into the space between her jawline and her collarbone. He can smell her hair. "I'm going to remember this entire year. I'm going to remember every moment I ever spent with you."

It's not even fair. She was supposed to be godtier. She was supposed to live as long as he would, if not longer.

But he brings his hands up and around, to cup her shoulder blades and hold her closer, and there are no wings there, and Dave Strider almost cries for the first time in a long time.

He doesn't, though. He promised himself he wouldn't until she was gone.

They separate and Aradia sniffs back tears and Dave offers his sleeve for her nose-blowing purposes and she laughs and swats it away with a murmured "Ew, Dave", and then she lowers herself to the ground, leaning up against the column behind her, and he sits down there too.

Their hands intertwine and they sit like that until the sun rises.

They almost get caught, mouthing 'shit' and 'fuck' at each other as they run out before the first tour group comes through, but Aradia and Dave will live to see another day. 

At least one more day.


End file.
